Repair work at fairgrounds done 3 weeks early

Electrical work at the Illinois State Fairgrounds is complete, three weeks ahead of schedule.

Doug Finke

Electrical work at the Illinois State Fairgrounds is complete, three weeks ahead of schedule.

Officials with the state Department of Agriculture and Capital Development Board will hold a news conference Tuesday morning to announce completion of the project and reopening of the fairgrounds to the public.

The announcement means resumption of non-fair activities, starting with a mixed martial arts event May 17. It also means motorcycle races scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, including the Springfield Mile, can take place.

When it let a contract for the wiring work in March, CDB required that the job be completed by May 16. The low bidder on the work, B&B Electric of Springfield, beat the deadline by three weeks.

“We required that they work double shifts,” CDB spokesman Dave Blanchette said Monday. “It (beating the deadline) was by folks from CDB and Agriculture and the contractor working their tails off.”

Also, CDB built some cushion into the timetable because the high-voltage cable to be replaced was underground.

“Having almost everything underground gave us a great deal of uncertainty about what we might find,” Blanchette said.

That uncertainty showed up in one case where workers discovered concrete conduit was damaged and had to be replaced at an extra cost of about $35,000. Blanchette did not have information Monday about any additional change orders.

Although replacement of the high-voltage cable is finished, there is still some cleanup work to be done that will continue for a few more days, Blanchette said.

The total cost of rewiring the fairgrounds is about $2.37 million. That includes $98,000 for testing and other engineering work and a $475,000 emergency wiring contract awarded to B&B after the first outages occurred on the fairgrounds in January. At the time, state officials didn’t know the extent of the problem.

When engineers determined the entire high-voltage cable system had to be replaced, B&B submitted the low bid of $1.8 million. All three of the other bids were for $3 million or more.

B&B president Todd Brinkman could not be reached for comment Monday, though he said previously the company had 20 workers assigned to the project, about one-third of its manpower.

The fairgrounds has been virtually shut down since mid-February because of the electrical problems. The shut-down displaced dozens of events, large and small, that were scheduled for fairgrounds buildings. Agriculture officials said they did not want to jeopardize public safety while the problems persisted.

Some, like the Illinois Horse Fair, canceled, unable to find another facility that was large enough. Others, such as the Illinois Beef Expo and the National Clydesdale Sale, relocated away from Springfield. Still others moved to other venues in Springfield.

The city economy took a significant hit from the fairgrounds’ closure, with the Beef Expo, Clydesdale sale and Horse Fair each worth about $250,000, according to city tourism officials. The fairgrounds lost about $150,000 in rental fees.

Agriculture spokesman Jeff Squibb said Monday that even though the rewiring work is finished early, it is unlikely events will be scheduled at the fairgrounds between now and May 17.

“Most of the bookings at the fairgrounds are not done short term. They are done well in advance,” Squibb said. “If someone wants to (schedule an event), we will talk to them.”

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

Beef Expo will return to fairgrounds next year

By DOUG FINKE

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois Beef Expo, a major event displaced by electrical problems at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, is returning to Springfield next year.

“Mainly, the Bloomington facility wasn’t big enough to host all of our events,” said Cimeron Frost, spokesman for the Illinois Beef Association. “We also want to get back to our original date.”

With the fairgrounds effectively shut down because of electrical problems, the Beef Expo relocated to the Interstate Center in Bloomington, taking with it an estimated $250,000 that it pumped into Springfield’s economy.

However, the Expo had to cancel all of its junior events because the Interstate Center did not have as much space available as the fairgrounds. Frost said the junior program attracts up to 400 participants and 650 head of cattle.

The change also meant the Expo was not held at its traditional time, the last full weekend in February. Beef expos also are held in Iowa and Kentucky around the same time, and because of that, Illinois participants wanted keep the Illinois event at its usual time, Frost said.

However, the Interstate Center hosts a deer and turkey expo that same weekend that attracts more than 22,000 people, said Kate Burcham, general manager of the center.

“It was the dates more than anything,” Burcham said of the Beef Expo returning to Springfield. “I really think we could have worked something out with the space. We would have loved to have them back. Unfortunately, we can’t make that happen.”

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

Poe wants information on all state properties

SPRINGFIELD -- Rep. Raymond Poe said Monday he’s going to demand information about the condition of all state-owned properties from the Capital Development Board.

Frustrated in attempts to get information about the condition of buildings on the Illinois State Fairgrounds, Poe, R-Springfield, said he will file a resolution in the House to get information being compiled by CDB about all building conditions. He wants the information by the end of May.

CDB hired Vanderweil Facility Advisors of Boston for $3.62 million to conduct the assessment.

“We’re going after whatever that report is,” Poe said. “I want to see it for the whole state of Illinois to see if there are any other looming events that can happen.”

The State Journal-Register filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get information compiled about buildings at the fairgrounds. CDB rejected the request, saying the “preliminary data” was in a draft format that is not subject to public inspection.

Poe said he suspects CDB has compiled more than just draft data, but he wants the information regardless.

“I think it’s something every legislator should be interested in,” he said.